#1 It’s fucking stupid
A very good argument because it would’ve made the list regardless of whether I ended up liking or hating the show.
Bikini Warriors, as the name implies, is just stupid fun. It’s a fantasy story about a party of four adventurers who discover that the only armor available for women are bikinis. Bikinis give the best stats, they provide all sorts of resistances, and they have to kill some big Demon God thing at some point so they will need the very best bikinis they can find. The party consists of a fiery, red-haired fighter, an overconfident dark elf, a mage girl just barely old enough to star in this show, and a blonde paladin with a fetish for sacrificing herself.
The show is an ecchi comedy, but fortunately, one that only lasts 12 episodes of 4 minutes each. This gives the dumb premise enough time to explore various angles, show off the dynamic of the main characters, and then conclude before outstaying its welcome.
#2 By gamers, for gamers
Bikini Warriors was produced by Hobby Japan, a magazine with a focus on tabletop games, video games, and war games, who also dabble in other projects like translated rulebooks for D&D and anime. As such, much of the comedy in this show that isn’t just about tits pokes fun at tropes in fantasy RPGs, such as how world-saving heroes are often recruited to do chores in town or, indeed, how women in these games often end up with ridiculous armors.
While Bikini Warriors likes to have a laugh at these familiar trappings, I did feel that it was made from a genuine love for these kinds of games. The stories they tackle go far enough past the simple layman jokes to be interesting for the target audience and small touches like the choice of monsters and the music in some scenes made it easy to appreciate the show.
An episode I was particularly fond off had the party pick between two adventurers who wanted to join up with them, only to discover both were less than ideal. As a gamer who is frequently irritated about having to figure out whether a new character fits in my line-up after spending half the game growing familiar with the starting cast, I could definitely relate to this episode.
#3 Good ecchi
This is going to make me seem arbitrary, but I actually really enjoyed the ecchi side of Bikini Warriors. Honestly, everybody that goes out of their way to find a show like this will probably be in on the fun anyway, but it has to be said that the show really handles itself well.
It likes to push at the boundaries of what you can get away with, but never in a way that feels creepy. The sexy stuff is all lighthearted and comes across as tongue-in-cheek, with most of it being inoffensive or even consensual. Especially the paladin is a riot, as she constantly jumps to extreme solutions like going into prostitution when the party funds run low, or willingly throwing herself at monsters “so the others can escape.”
Like with other ecchi shows I praised here, if you didn’t like these kinds of anime to begin with or even find them offensive, then Bikini Warriors is not going to change your mind. Fans of ecchi should definitely check it out though, and open-minded fantasy fans may find a guilty pleasure in it.
